Serendipity stamping technique

I haven't done any crafting this weekend. Too busy running in and out and about. I wanted to post something here though. So, here's a bit about the serendipity technique that I think was first created by Robin of Ma Vinci's Reliquary. Yes, the same Ma Vinci with all of the great unmounted alphabets!

As you might guess from the name, the technique is a bit loose and can incorporate most anything. This is my version of Robin's original vision. Actually, as I recall, it had come to her in a dream. But anyway, take a piece of cardstock, any size, any color, matte, glossy, whatever. Gather some scraps, bits of fiber, ribbon, mesh, any fun elements. Grab some stamps and inks and embossing powders, just about anything else you'd like to use. Okay, now just start either adhering elements to your cardstock, or stamp on it first. This is a very random thing. Your scraps don't have to all fit within the page. It's okay if stuff sticks out over the edges, but fill the page and have fun with it. You can trim it up later if you want to. Here's what one of mine looked like.

serendipity sheet

I used mesh, leftover scraps and diecuts, sprayed it with gold webbing. Some people like to use stamps alone and combine them in collage fashion all over the page. I like using a lot of different textures and elements. There's no right or wrong. Anything goes!

Next, cut your cardstock into 1 1/4 inch squares. You can then mount the squares on a slightly larger piece of cardstock or layer them directly onto the front of a card in different designs or patterns. Here are a couple of my examples from this sheet.

carpe noctem

Here I angled my squares on black cardstock to go with my theme and just placed them in freeform style on the front of my card. The center piece with the sentiment is another example of polished stone. Told you that I use the technique a lot.

creativity

I used a more traditional look for the creativity card. I thought the serendipity of the squares already spoke to the notion of creativity for this one.

And finally, I used the last few scraps of my serendipity page for some diecuts. Here's the card with those.

music is the beauty

So, if you're blocked from a creativity standpoint, or if you're craft space is overrun by scraps and bits of this, that and the other, give the serendipity technique a try. It might just get those creative juices flowing, and it's a great technique for those times when you might want to make a lot of cards quickly.